Equitable+Learning+Outcomes_Special+Abilities

**NOTE: This page needs updating!**

The English curriculum statement “provides goals and challenges for all, including gifted and talented students. Teachers should adapt learning contexts to stimulate and extend these students”.

- from English in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 15.

English Department strategies that recognise the learning needs of gifted and talented students include: • early identification of students’ abilities through diagnostic assessment, teaching and anecdotal feedback • specific programmes for gifted and talented students which allow for acceleration, enrichment and extension (i.e. in complexity of texts and tasks and in curriculum compacting) • raising expectations to achieve quality work of a high standard (excellence) at a faster pace • allowing for creativity and experimentation • preparing tasks that are open-ended and allow for divergence where appropriate • giving responsibility to the students to allow initiative and leadership qualities to emerge • including activities that require problem-solving • providing for the development of analytical, critical, lateral and reflective thinking and meta-cognition • encouraging curiosity (what if…?) and risk-taking (with a safety net)

[Insert a statement explaining the way special abilities students are catered for in your school and what implications this has for English teachers e.g. acceleration]

